SEO experts know all the remedies a website needs to get traffic and have optimized online presence.

While discussing with some of the top SEO experts in India, I got to know some of the top qualities that an SEO expert in India must have.

Let’s go through those qualities-

10 Essential Qualities of an SEO Expert

SEO Expert Qualities

1. Knowing different areas of Specialization in SEO

With SEO being only a subset of Search Engine Marketing, there are numerous areas of specialization inside SEO itself. To be an SEO expert, it is must to be aware about all the different areas of specialization in SEO. To hire a SEO expert, consultants and businesses ask for the specialization in following areas-

(a.) Search Engine Optimization

Local search– it covers topics like how business profiles are created in the major search engines, major search directories for business, mapping sites, local media sites, niche industry directory sites, and so on

On-page– it covers details of all the on-page elements that can affect how effectively the search engine crawler consumes and interprets the content of any website

Analytics– it covers all the details related to traffic and conversion analysis with the use of big data, user population demographics and consumer behavior on a site

Mobile– it covers all things related to search marketing on mobile devices

Content development– it covers content writing and marketing needs of all the internet marketing channels

Link building– it covers the process of getting links from external websites

Keyword development– it helps in identifying keywords and phrases to be used by websites to earn relevance and traffic

Reputation management– it covers the task of maintaining the overall goodwill for an online business through effective internet branding

Web SEO essential techniques

(b.) Pay-Per-Click advertising

It covers creating compelling search advertising in Google and Bing

(c.) Social Media Marketing

It covers creating fresh, powerful content and drawing followers via many social networks, such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, FourSquare, and many more.

A large number of these are interrelated disciplines. For instance, PPC advertising is presently developing to cover paid advertisements in Facebook, a definitive web-based social networking setting. PPC requires successful keyword advancement, as do numerous SEO disciplines. Online networking advertising frequently ties in with local and mobile SEO and knowing about your core niche will for sure help you be a successful SEO expert in India.

2. Practical Knowledge of Additional Fields you have to know as an SEO Expert

Website Creation and Modification:

So, you started reading this article as a “how to become an SEO expert” guide, and here come some other skills you need to be familiar with to be an SEO expert. You should know how to create a SEO friendly Website for you. Alternately, as an SEO expert, you should be able to suggest and make modifications in your existing website for improving the SEO score. As a SEO expert, I’d strongly recommend to create a highly user-friendly website as best user-experience is one of the most important Google ranking factors.

Content Writing & Alignment:

Content is one of the most important assets for SEO. Any SEO expert in India can vouch for the same. If your websites do not have well written, relevant and engaging content, it will not rank in SERPs. Knowing specific requirements of clients, and having knowledge about SEO tools that can update you about best keywords, search volume data, keyword density, keyword stuffing and competitive performance of content is must to be SEO experts in India.

Earning Links:

Links are one of the most important factors for any SEO success. Companies, that hire SEO expert to channelize their internet marketing campaigns, value SEO experts- if they have great skills to generate quality links for them. Earning quality links is very important as Google weighs Quality not Quantity in deciding ranking of WebPages. Quality links can be done by delivering high caliber, helpful and pertinent content to which valid sites need to interface.

3. An Understanding of All Three SEO Levels

SEO incorporates three levels-

Technical- the structure of a site that can decide how simple or troublesome it is for search engines to crawl and list your content

On-page optimization- use of different elements such as keywords and HTML tags in ways that help increase traffic to your website

Off-page optimization- involves techniques of link building

Raven Internet Marketing Tools by Taylor Pratt-

“You don’t want a one-dimensional SEO. You need someone who will approach their strategy from all three angles to maximize success” -says Taylor Pratt, VP of Product Marketing for Raven Internet Marketing Tools. He further adds- “If search engines can’t access all the content on a website, or some content is buried too deeply in the site, then anything else done on the website will be useless in terms of SEO success,”

Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings says- “This means that all SEO consultants or companies need to understand all the technical limitations and issues that search engines may have, and they need to be able to articulate those to the developers of your website so that the issues can be minimized.”

4. Years of SEO Experience & Certification

“Anyone can set-up an ‘SEO agency’ overnight and call themselves an SEO expert. But that doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. There are hundreds of little things that go into the bigger picture of doing SEO and it takes many years of experiencing what works and what doesn’t to truly do a good job.” – says Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings.

Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings

She further adds that every site needs different kind of SEO tactics to succeed.

“An SEO expert with many years of experience will be able to look at any website and know exactly what needs to be done for it to gain more search engine traffic, while someone new at SEO will try the same things on every site, which will only have a limited effect, if any.”

As you advance in your SEO training, it can be useful to pursue a certification in the field. Agencies of consultant who hire SEO experts in India or abroad, rate SEO professionals who are certified way higher compared to others. Some of the certifications best fit for SEO experts in India are-

5. A Proven Track Record of SEO Success

Having a proven track record is must for SEO success. “There are tons of blog posts and articles that describe

Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings

various SEO tactics one can use. But it’s another thing to have happy clients. Anyone looking to hire an SEO consultant or company should definitely check at least three fairly current references to discuss how the SEO company helped them succeed.” -says Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings.

To hire an SEO expert, clients prefer to ask for references and case studies to weed out the pioneers from the pack. They want to see tangible results and improvements from their interaction with an SEO expert that can justify their expense. It’s important for search professionals to present themselves in a professional manner and put on a show of being having a decent comprehension of SEO.

However, it’s something else to have a background marked by happy customers. Testimonials are great; however, references who will address you and vouch for the SEO master’s legitimacy are better. Request three current customers you may contact for more data.

6. Marketing Savvy & A Well-rounded Perspective and Knowledge

Having well aware with the marketing industry and being well-informed will for sure add more value to your SEO skills. In his guide about “how to be SEO expert”,Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings says,

“Once you get beyond the technical issues of a website, SEO is a lot like traditional marketing. Content needs to be written in a way that outlines the benefit to the user while leading them to a sale. And it all has to be done in a way that also appeals to the people at the other end of a search engine who are looking for what your company has to offer.”

Rand Fishkin

CEO, & Co-Founder of SEO Moz, Rand Fishkin says, “For years, I thought I could ignore subjects outside the hyper-focused SEO arena. If it didn’t have to do with ranking web pages in search engines, bah humbug! That attitude was foolish and wrong. Today’s SEO needs to understand all of marketing at a deep level, the psychology of the human race, the specific culture to whom they’re marketing, the social media landscape, web analytics, web design and development, viral marketing, content, product, business models and more. When we disconnect SEO from these other critical practices, we make short-term decisions that can ultimately hurt more than they help.”

7. An Understanding of the Big Picture & Knowing What kind of SEO you want to be

Do the SEOs concentrate on conversions (converting a guest to your site into a client), or would they say they are more worried with search engine rankings? In a perfect world, “the focus of any SEO strategy should be to accomplish a goal (like increasing conversions), not to achieve a certain rank,”says Taylor Pratt, vice president of product marketing for Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

The Capability to Fit in With Your Company’s Culture- SEO experts must interface with a wide range of territories of a business including IT, customer services, marketing, sales, analytics, etc. The capacity for the SEO to function admirably with individuals from these groups is basic, notes Fishkin, and he further says,

“The personality, integrity and communication style of the SEO needs to match the organization or progress will be hard”.

What sort of SEO expert would you like to be? – Two primary roles you can play in the SEO world are- In-house or Agency (including entrepreneur). There are incalculable subtleties to every opportunity, and you need to be aware about all of them to get considered amongst top rated SEO experts in India.

8. Be well aware about the White Hat & Black Hat SEO Practices

Black Hat SEO & White Hat SEO

Some people (white hats) who wish to be fruitful as time goes on, ensure the reputations of their brands and sites, and do the diligent work to gain long haul accomplishment with true legitimate page rankings. While on the other hand, the black hat SEO professionals noxiously misuse shortcomings in the search engine ranking algorithms to deceitfully accomplish higher page rank than what is generally merited.

Frankly, here and there these endeavors do work – for some time. Nonetheless, once the strategies and methods are found by the search engines (and they contribute huge assets to find and combat this), site utilizing black hat procedures can be punished. Search punishments can go from having their placement in the organic search results lowered far down in search lists. In addition, website domains of such sites can be permanently cleansed from search indexes.

That is why it is important to be aware about the black hat & white hat SEO practices to be an SEO expert. Knowing accurate distinction in between White Hat & Black Hat SEO practices is considered one of the most important topics of “how to become a good SEO expert” guide.

9. Excellent communication skills

Talking about communication skills, an SEO should have the capacity to clearly communicate why a change must be made to a particular website in wording that everybody comprehends, notes Taylor Pratt, VP of Product Marketing for Raven Internet Marketing Tools. He further adds, –

“There’s no way an SEO can do everything themselves. So they need to be able to communicate why a certain change needs to be made in terms that everyone understands. They should be able to talk to the IT team and the C-level team and get their point across.”

SEO consultants’ communication styles and customer services’ standards vary. You need to find someone whose approach best fits with your needs. Ask if the candidate prefers to talk in person or via phone, Skype, texting or email. Being well aware about communication mediums and having great communication skills will for sure help you rise as one of the best SEO experts in India.

SEO experts who prefer to get things done accurately and ensure results are considered top rated and consultants prefer to hire SEO experts of that caliber.

Rand Fishkin, CEO & co-founder of SEOMoz says-

“Great SEOs find ways to work around challenges and roadblocks. Of course, this means that your organization must enable progress and not impede it or you’ll break their spirit and desire to impact the company positively.”

Curiosity is another factor, which is considered significant for an SEO expert.

“Finding an SEO who can recite the IP addresses for all of Google’s crawlers is great, but one who’s deeply curious and constantly investigating how that crawler works is even better. I’ve often met SEOs whose knowledge was fantastic, but at some point in their career, it ceased to grow. I’d rather have a fresh mind that’s hungry and growing than a grizzled vet whose thirst for new knowledge died in 2006.” – says Rand Fishkin

Staying up-to-date about the best SEO tools and techniques is one of the key factors for successful SEO experts in India.

Conclusion

Paying due help upon all the over-mentioned SEO qualities will for sure help you gain SEO skills that top rated SEO experts in India have.

To channelize result-oriented search engine optimization and ensure conversions, it is very important that you are well aware of all these essential SEO skills; and once you do this, you will also get established as an SEO expert in India.

In case, you find I miss some of the skills, do update me in comments.